the effect of using critical discourse analytical tools on the improvement of the learners level of critical thinking in reading comprehension

?it is of utmost priority for an experienced teacher to train the mind of the students, and enable them to think critically and correctly. the most important question here is that how to develop such a crucial ability? this study examines a new way to the development of critical thinking utilizing critical discourse analytical tools. to attain this goal, two classes of senior english language and literature university students, studying reading comprehension courses were chosen. one class went on with the usual instructions; the other group was treated with the special treatment that is, the use of critical discourse analytical tools. a pretest (which was the combination of three test namely critical thinking, reading comprehension and critical discourse analysis) was conducted at the beginning of the instruction phase to measure the critical abilities of the students and to make sure that they are homogeneous and a parallel posttest at the end of the instruction phase. the comparison of the results revealed that the experiment group showed a noticeable development on their level of critical thinking. this new method can be used in areas other than reading comprehension such as listening, speaking, and writing.